My projects are currently on hold (until at least August ) because I have a large community project where I'll be designing and building a lot of stuff (like furniture, a stage, and some room automation). But I just realized I might actually need to weld some stuff for this project. So, we'll see how it goes. Maybe I get one of them sooner than I thought..

Turns out I need a welder for some mounting brackets I make for my community project. So I searched a bit and found a site that looks like they know something about welding (I would never buy anything off ebay or the likes) and dug around in their selection.

Looks quite nice, and has more than enough power (max setting should throw out my circuit breakers). It also has some of the nice features like configurable pulsing and so on. Also got the foot pedal which I think will be useful.

I know, the machine is quite cheap (for what it's advertised to be), but I will be welding like once every two to six months in the longer run. I don't need a 3000 EUR welder for that...
One nice thing about this one is that they use standardized parts, and they offer any spare parts and will service the machine if necessary at any time. Should get it some time next week. Will report back on how I like it, but this might take some time because I have very little welding experience. I did some projects in school with an acetylene welder, but that's already a bunch of years past

/edit:
By the way. I bought a welding mask and gloves with the machine. Do I need a jacket / apron as well? In the videos it doesn't seem to spark a lot, at least not when welding stainless steel.

whoo... nice... honestly, I´m already checking my pocket money....
Jacket is a good idea as depending on the position and the material and if there are sparks. Remembering my time in the technical education, I had one semester to lear how to weld. long time ago... was really funny as depending on the precicion/ability, the wels held well or broke quite fast
So start learning.... and organize a few scrap parts to try...

Good thing about buying lasercut steel parts: The more you buy, the cheaper they get. Will get lots of pieces to learn on

The cool thing about this welder is, I might be able to weld aluminum sheets with it (I know the machine can, but we shall see if I can ). This opens some doors for my 3D printer builds... And most importantly, I don't need any bent steel sheets anymore because these are really expensive.

Based on my (limited) welding experience, I found aluminium easier to weld than steel with a TIG welder.

I hope you got an automatic welding mask and not one of those simple shields or masks that usually come with the kits? If not, get one! You will have so much more fun welding with a mask that switches between dark and clear automatically.

So.... Now that I can weld aluminum, why not weld those Misumi alu extrusions together instead of using screws and connectors?

If I make some large steel brackets that fix the extrusions in place, but leave the space around the welding joints open, then I should be able to perfectly align them with the brackets, fix the brackets, weld the extrusions, remove the brackets and have them positioned perfectly.
Right or wrong? Worth a shot?

It would be too much work for a commercial 3D printer frame. But I suppose a welded frame is stronger than a screwed one. But I do alu extrusion assemblies like that quite often these days (tables, racks and stuff).

Strange thing is, I don't find any videos about that on youtube. Usually you'd find anything there...

/edit:
Scrap that. Gotta start with one thing first, worry about the next steps later...